


I Wanna Get Better

by EvilMuffins



Category: Dangan Ronpa, Dangan Ronpa 3: The End of 希望ヶ峰学園 | The End of Kibougamine Gakuen | End of Hope's Peak High School, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, Despair Era (Dangan Ronpa), F/M, Ficlet Collection, Fluff, Kissing, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-30
Updated: 2018-07-01
Packaged: 2018-10-12 19:22:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 5,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10497837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EvilMuffins/pseuds/EvilMuffins
Summary: “If…If you had a special talent, what would it be?” she hoped that she wasn’t setting him up to say something self-deprecating again. She wished he wouldn’t do that so often; it hit too close to home in ways she didn’t wish to detangle during stolen moments in the courtyard sandwiched, inbetween math and English.---A collection of Komamiki prompt fics.





	1. Normal AU

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt for this one was 'a normal AU'.  
> Apologies if you've already seen this first story before! I decided to combine it into a collection to keep things neat. Go ahead and hit next chapter if you've already read this one!

“I didn’t know you liked games,” Komaeda commented, seating himself on the bench beside Tsumiki, leaning in to peek at the small screen gripped between her hands.

“I don’t!” she peeped, nearly dropping the device before attempting to jam it away into her bag without hitting the sleep switch first. “I mean…I…I’m not sure if I do or not. N-Nanami-san told me that it was no good that I didn’t have any hobbies, so she lent me her extra Gamegirl…”

“Well, that was nice of her.”

Tsumiki nodded in agreement, and the two fell silent for a moment, Tsumiki picking at the bandage around her wrist, while Komaeda’s intent stare wriggled its way into the pit of her stomach. It was about time to change the wrapping soon, even though there was no wound beneath to soil it, not since she had graduated middle school. No one bullied Tsumiki here. It set her on edge.

Ever since the first few weeks of high school had come and gone, the other students in their class quickly began to form friendships, leaving Komaeda and Tsumiki as the two odd ones out. More often than not, their paths would cross between classes as the two both searched for an out of the way place to sit.

Komaeda wasn’t terrible company, Tsumiki soon found. At very least, he showed concern for her whenever she would trip and fall or walk into something, and he was a patient listener when she stuttered, even if he did do the majority of the talking between the two of them.

While Tsumiki did consider the class rep to be her friend as well, Nanami was also very busy spreading herself out among not only their other classmates, but a student from an entirely different course as well.

Finally Komaeda broke the silence, though not without causing the girl beside him to start, which was understandable considering that he had leaned across her in order to pluck the device from her worn schoolbag. His jacket smelled of laundry soap, the nice kind. “What was that game about?”

“Oh um… well you see…It’s about a group of students who each have a special talent, but they’re all trapped together, and forced to…murder their friends…” she finished in a smaller voice than usual.

He was going to think that she was into that sort of thing now, sadistically watching fictional characters meeting gruesome fates…not that it would be awful if he did, just as long as kept speaking to her.

“Hmm. I didn’t think you’d be into that sort of thing,” he said absently, clicking through a few lines of dialog pertaining to the current in-game case.

“I’m sorry!” Tsumiki squealed. “I’m sorry I’m s-so gross! Nanami-san told me to pick out a game, so I panicked, and grabbed the nearest one without looking… You can smack me over the head with it until the battery case pops out i-if you’d like…”

“Nah, it’s fine.” He continued to click the X button, although if he were speed-reading, or completely ignoring the storyline, Tsumiki couldn’t say. “I saw a trailer for one of these games once. I always thought that I’d be the first one to be killed if it were real, you know?”

“Don’t say that!”

Komaeda rasped out a laugh. Tsumiki often wished she could hear him laughing at something that was actually comical, rather than the times he tried to make light of putting himself down. “Why not? It would finally be my chance to be good for something. Besides, it’s only hypothetical anyway. Still, we can change the subject if it really bothers you…”

So he was leaving it up to her then. Despite what some of their classmates may have thought, Tsumiki wasn’t without a clue when it came it to interacting with others. She had figured out straight away that Komaeda enjoyed pushing other’s comfort zones. There were times in which it was unintentional, but she was generally able to get a good feel for when it wasn’t.

“If…If you had a special talent, what would it be?” she hoped that she wasn’t setting him up to say something self-deprecating again. She wished he wouldn’t do that so often; it hit too close to home in ways she didn’t wish to detangle during stolen moments in the courtyard sandwiched between Math and English.

“I’m pretty sure that I wouldn’t have one. I’d probably just be too much in awe of the rest of you, with all of your amazing skills. You’d be the most talented young nurse, I’m certain.”

“Me!? I…I can’t even take care of _myself_ properly…” It was true, she hadn’t gotten herself something to eat all day, and her uniform hadn’t been washed in quite sometime. “I’m useless at everything…”

She couldn’t say that she disliked the idea of nursing, even if she would be poor at it. People relying on her, having a need for her rather than her presence being a burden...

“You’re good at taking care of others, though. Last week, when Saionji-san came into class with a dog bite, because she had been pulling its tail on her way here, you bandaged her right up when the school nurse wasn’t in.” He had paused the game, setting it down in his lap, shifting his full attention toward the girl beside him.

“No, I- You’re wrong-“

“In fact,” he continued, speaking over her, “You make me feel better just by spending time with me like this. It can’t be easy for you to stand me, yet you do it anyway. It’s a knack, a talent.”

“But y-you’re not even hurt-“ Although Komaeda was always nicer to her than she felt she deserved, this lavish praise of her skills felt so pleasing, that she wanted to bury herself beneath the flowerbed neighboring their bench.

He smiled, inscrutable, and just enough so that she could nearly bring herself to pretend that he was only humoring her.

“Do you want to play the game some more? I could fill you in on the part you missed while I was talking.”

“If…if you don’t mind too much...”

He resumed the game, leaning into her so that their shoulders were touching, making sure that she had full view of the screen. “You see, Tonagi-kun here just hid a knife beneath the table…”

 


	2. Lost in the dark

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt was something along the lines of Ko discovering that Tsumiki had wandered off at night, and him going to find her.

The scene at breakfast that morning reminded Komaeda of one of those ‘spot the difference’ puzzles for young children.  

At first glance, everything appeared to be the same as it had been for the past few mornings, some chatting over food, while others sat more quietly, not quite yet having come to terms with the concept of being awake for the day. It was hard to blame them; Komaeda himself had found it difficult to sleep some nights ever since they had found themselves on the island. There were so many things to mull over, between the murders and everything else. Besides, once someone finally took him up on his offer to provide a steppingstone toward their escape, he would have a good, long rest then, wouldn’t he?

Even without a sound sleep the previous night, however, Komaeda could see right away what was missing from the picture.

Tsumiki Mikan.

She wasn’t being called names seated beside Saionji, nor was she lying on the floor covered in food in an ill-advised cry for attention.

Being late was unlike her, oddly enough. Although it would have given her something new to make a scene over apologising for, generally she was one of the first to emerge from her cabin in the morning.

Without a word, Komaeda turned back around, taking stairs back down to the pool area, before heading toward Tsumiki’s cabin. oddly enough, it turned out that as long as he managed to keep his mouth shut, no one really seemed to notice him come and go.

No one answered his knocking at the door. Even if Tsumiki hadn’t been feeling well, she would normally (and quite literally) trip over herself to answer. Although no Body Discovery Announcement had interrupted their morning, that didn’t mean something dire hadn’t happened to her, only that no one had found out about it yet.

His heart sank at the thought. Why wouldn’t anyone listen to him? He’d make a much better sacrifice in the name of hope than the only medical professional in their midst. Skill set aside, Tsumiki was interesting, and generally pleasant to be around, despite her protests to the contrary. The handful of times they spent together, the girl had proved herself to be a competent conversationalist, so long as one was willing to be patient while she gathered her thoughts. She was smart. Too smart to get herself killed, Komaeda was sure of it.

So she wasn’t in the cabin. No need to pick the lock with the tool he had taken with him from the convenience store, then.

Then where else could she be? No matter- if Komaeda began walking, he was certain that his luck would lead him straight to her.  

Unfortunately, come sundown, he had still yet to find her. He had even considered at one point approaching Hinata for help, however he knew that the other boy no longer trusted him, and who knew, maybe he had finally noticed her absence on his own and was searching for her elsewhere already.

Just as darkness was beginning to creep its way in, Komaeda ceased walking around the island. This was largely because he had just tripped over a root, toppling over the side of a ledge to find himself with a lovely view of the starry sky, aided by the fact that he came to lay flat on his back in the damp sand.

“K-K-Komaeda-san!?”

“Ah…who knew that the angel of mercy sounded just like Tsumiki-san? I never would have guessed that I’d finally die by falling down a cliff…” Komaeda chuckled weakly, making no attempt to lift himself off the ground.

Suddenly, his view of the clear sky was over taken by a panic-stricken face hovering over his own for a brief moment, until a curtain of dark hair cascaded down into his eyes.

“Everything’s gone dark. I suppose this really is the end for me!” he remarked cheerfully.

“I’m sorry! I’m so, so sorry!” His vision cleared just as quickly as Tsumiki leapt away from him. “D-do you think you have a concussion? Y-you shouldn’t move until I can examine you.”

A gentle, yet quaking, hand lighted upon his shoulder.

“I’m fine, Tsumiki-san, really. I was just a little surprised to have finally found you, that’s all.” Komaeda attempted to sit up, only to find Tsumiki’s grasp on him become surprisingly firm as she pushed him back down.

“You…you just fell down a cliff…” she insisted, hand slowly working its way along his arm in a massaging fashion- what he could only assume to be her checking for broken bones. He became aware of how close her face was once again, the mole beneath her eye just barely visible by the moonlight placing its milky halo around her.

“It wasn’t a very big cliff.” Komaeda remained still, resigning himself to his fate for the moment. It wasn’t as if it didn’t feel nice to be doted on so, even if her time and effort would be better spent elsewhere. “Speaking of that, Tsumiki-san, why are _you_ down here?”

“...You did say that you had ‘finally’ found me, d-didn’t you? Does that mean that you were actually looking?!”

“Mm-hmm.”

“Oh…” Tsumiki averted her gaze, looking instead toward the salty water lapping against the sand some feet away. “I… Well, the truth is…I thought that no one would miss me if I wasn’t around. In fact, every one would be better off without me, so I left. I-I thought no one would find me if I climbed down here…”

As Tsumiki loosened her grip, Komaeda took the opportunity to seat himself upright. “If someone were to get hurt, they’d certainly need you.”

Tsumiki’s eyes darted forward once more, shinning in the dark. “That’s all I’m good for, though! No one…no one likes me as a person…”

“Tsumiki-san, it is true that I value your talent very much. Your skill in healing people is incredibly admirable, and will surely aid in achieving the hope we need in order to leave here. However, I noticed that something was missing right away when I came up for breakfast this morning. You’re lively and funny, and your always willing to give people something extra off of your plate if they don’t have enough. I found that I just couldn’t sit down and eat without you there.”

At this, Tsumiki’s lower lip began to tremble. “N-no one’s ever missed me before! And you fell all the way down here because of me… I’m so sorry!”

Komaeda imagined that if it had been lighter out, he would have seen tears forming. “I told you, I’m fine. In fact, I’m more than fine seeing as my luck came through again in leading me to you. Please relax, Tsumiki-san... By the way, speaking of breakfast, have you eaten at all today?”

The girl wiped at her cheek, answering weakly. “No…”

While Komaeda was used to forgetting to eat during the day, he wasn’t certain about Tsumiki’s own typical eating habits. “Let’s get back and find you something to eat.”

Komaeda stood, offering a hand. Truth be told, it felt a little odd to be attempting to aid the nurse, rather than being on the receiving end, although he couldn’t help but feel a rare spark of usefulness at the thought.

It was sort-lived.

“Ah. My bad." After allowing a moment or two to pass without Tsumiki taking the hand, he let drop by his side.  "Of course you wouldn’t want to touch someone like me. Do you think you could find your way back on your own if I get a head start? So you wouldn’t have to walk beside me, I mean.”

“No!” Tsumiki launched herself off the ground with the speed and fervor of someone who had just realised that their underpants were quickly becoming mobile home to a mound of ants. “I’m sorry! We’ll go back! I’m just…so happy you came to find me…”

It turned out that the ‘cliff’ could hardly be called such after all. The two easily pulled themselves up it, and back onto the path above.

The two traveled side-by-side for a time, in a twitchy sort of silence.

“K-Komaeda-san?”

“Mm?”

“Please don’t think that I’m doubting you! I’m really sorry in advance for asking this, but are you sure we’re going the right way? It’s, it’s so dark- Eep!”

As she spoke, Tsumiki sailed forward, having tripped on a rock.

Instinctively, Komaeda held out an arm to catch her, however, the moment he felt her soft, warm form cradled against him, instant guilt washed over him. If she hadn’t wanted to touch his hand, then surely she must be repulsed at being held by him? As soon as she was steadied, he relinquished his grasp, before wordlessly continuing onward, only to feel something brush his hand.

The touch was so light, at first Komaeda thought it was nothing more than a stray moth.

When he did finally realise what it really was, an odd little pang arose in his chest. 

“We…should hold hands so we don’t get lost…if that’s alright with you!”

“I would like that very much.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There was going to be a Weird Medical Fact in here at one point, but I forgot half way through. You've been spared.


	3. Confession and Apology

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt was something like 'Post Hope Arc, Tsumiki apologises and confesses to Komaeda' 
> 
> Happy birthday, Ko! <3 I've been in the fandom 4 goshdarn years, and this is the first time I've gotten something done in time for his birthday.

Even if she were to someday live to become a grandmother lying on her death bed, Tsumiki was certain that she would never be able to completely oust the scent of salt water from her senses.

“Do you suppose that if I stay out here long enough, I’ll rust?”

“I-it’s surgical grade steel, so I don’t think that it will…”

Komaeda had been standing on the deck a handful of feet away from Tsumiki, silently observing the same endless stretch of blue, for at least ten minutes now.

She had hoped that he might have gotten bored and gone away in search of Hinata or Souda or Kuzuryuu instead.

“Aww, that’s a shame. I was hoping that I’d be like the Tin Man, and rust in place- that way I wouldn’t be a bother to any of you anymore!”

“But…only your hand is mechanical…” Although Tsumiki had finally spent enough time in close quarters with Komaeda by now to know when he was (half way) joking, somehow she still rarely found herself with a good feel for how to respond. “H-how does it feel today? You haven’t had me take a look at it for a while now…”

While it was true that Souda was the one behind maintaining the technical aspects of the appendage, Tsumiki was solely responsible for not only making certain that no infection should occur where skin and bone met metal, but also the boy’s rehabilitation as well.

“Go ahead, if you really want to you.” Obediently, Komaeda held the hand out toward her, although he moved no closer toward her, as if he were still giving the option to change her mind. “You’re wasting your time on me, though.”

Despite his words, Tsumiki drew near, taking the hard, sleek hand into her own.

“You always seem surprised,” Komaeda observed with a chuckle, noting Tsumiki’s wondering expression as she gingerly trailed a thumb over his palm.

“It’s…always so warm… I just always expected something made of steel to be cold…”

“Like a scalpel or something?”

Tsumiki nodded.

“Well, it is attached to a human being after all, if you could really count me as that.” Komaeda watched for a moment as Tsumiki flexed each of his fingers one by one, before pushing back his sleeve in order to inspect the connection to his wrist. “So, how is it?”

“I’ve never seen anything heal so well before, to be honest…” Although she was done her inspection, Tsumiki continued keep his hand within her own.

She hadn’t looked forward to his visits to her cabin, the previous times she performed his check ups. Neither one of them had brought up the things they had said during the program, or the things she had spewed while bewitched by Junko before then. The heavy feeling hanging in the air between them weighed upon her, even more so when she remembered how much she had enjoyed his company both while in school, and on the island, before things had come to what they had.

“I’m sorry it’s not _her_ hand anymore,” Komaeda broke the silence.

“That’s-! That’s alright. I-I’m glad you were able to get a new hand. Really, I am.” Tsumiki’s gaze wandered off back toward the water. Perhaps it was the vastness surrounding them, or the soothing caress of the sea breeze, but at that moment, Tsumiki found herself relieved of the tension that had plagued her around him for long enough to make an admission far overdue. “I…used to l-like you! Back when we were in school, I mean…and then again on the island. …It’s silly of me, isn’t it? N-not because you’re unlikable or anything! It’s just that…for someone like me to even imagine-”

Komaeda finally slid his hand from her grasp, returning it to the rail, peppered with salt spray. “I can’t feel anything with this hand you know.”

A gull squawked, though neither could find the source, despite the clear sky.

He continued, “It’s just as well if you don’t like me that way anymore. I’m not worth it, really, and I’ve caused more than enough trouble for everyone, you especially. You should know, though that I care about you…r talent, your hope, I mean. You’re indispensable!”

Although he faced the water, Tsumiki could still see the corner of his mouth turned up in a theatrically pleasant grin.

“I never said that! That I ever…s-stopped liking you… and…and also, I’m sorry for how I used to treat you, everything I said, back during The Incident! Enoshima-san…she…she...I was jealous when the two of you would talk, when she would give you orders. It took me years to realise that I was jealous of her for talking to you so confidently, rather than the other way around… please, just throw me overboard to the sharks!”

Komaeda was patient throughout the outburst. He never would interrupt, snapping at her to stop midway, like others might have.

Once she was done, he turned back toward her, catching up her up in one fluid motion.

This was it. He really was going to toss her overboard. At least she had been useful in saving their former kouhai, Kirigiri, before the end.

At least she had gotten to feel his arms around her, even if it had come to this.

However, the sensation of water rushing up to meet her never came, instead, there was only the sensation of human closeness encircling her.

“I’m glad. I’m so very glad to hear, Tsumiki-san. It’s still hard for me to believe that this isn’t gross for you, but do you mind if we stay like this, for just a moment? Holding you like this, I feel almost as if this hand of mine can even feel your warmth again.”

 

 


	4. Monsters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt was for a monster AU!

“More?” Seiko asked, turning from her work at the counter, and although half of her face was obscured by a surgical mask, there was no mistaking her troubled expression.

“I’m so sorry, Kimura-senpai, but I…I’m going to need more pills…”

“Tsumiki-chan…,” Seiko placed a gloved hand on her shoulder, scrutinizing her pale face. “You haven’t caught it too, have you?”

“N-no!” Tsumiki pulled back, leaving Seiko’s hand to hover in the tense air between them. “I’m sorry for making you think that, but I’m fine, really. We just ran out of the meds up front…”

“If you’re sure…” Seiko sounded wholly unconvinced as she returned to her work, sliding pills the size of bullets into an amber bottle, one by one. Tsumiki found herself swallowing thickly. “At least take a mask,” Seiko pleaded, holding one out for the nurse, along with the filled bottled.

“Thank you…” Tsumiki complied, looping the elastic strings over the backs of her ears, catching up some of her hair in the process, ticklish against her skin. Situating the metal piece over the bridge of her nose, she inhaled deeply. No matter how often she wore one, it still felt as if she were strangled.

Not that it was bad thing.

Slowly, Tsumiki pulled back the curtain leading to the front of their make-shift clinic, praying that whoever might have entered while she was in the back, wasn’t someone that she knew.

“Komaeda…san?” The pills rattled impatiently in their container, as her fingers twitched around it, the end result of her stomach leaping up to meet with her plummeting heart.

“Tsumiki-san!” The man exclaimed cheerfully, standing up from where he had perched on the wheeled desk chair, rather than the cot where patients were meant to sit. “What good luck!“

“I- I didn’t expect to see you again so soon…” Tsumiki said, taking the stethoscope from around her neck, wringing the black cord between sweaty hands. It was only just six months ago that she had last seen him for a treatment, only to find that he had miraculously recovered from his terminal illness in between visits. But that had been in a real hospital, with real doctors, before all of this. “You’re not here for...?”

Komaeda shrugged, smiling amicably, as if they had only just run into one-another at the corner coffee shop. He stood, crossing over to the cot with a distinct wobble in his step. Had he…been spinning on the chair? “You’re the nurse here. I’m certain with your incredible skills, that you can tell me.”

Were the same said by anyone else, Tsumiki would thought he were being sarcastic.

“I’m really not all that good… I’m not even a doctor anything, but…I’ll see what I can do. Please, take off your jacket…”

Komaeda complied, averting his eyes as he did so. The moment his floppy sleeve was pulled away to reveal the rest of his arm, a gasp escaped the nurse as she took a step back. “You- Your hand-“

As if considering what color to paint his now absent nails, Komaeda held the bandaged stump up in front of his face. “Wouldn’t you know that would be the first thing to go? I tried covering it up with gloves, but the one stopped fitting after a while, so, you know…” he made a little sawing motion across the wrist with his other hand, and despite years in the medical field, Tsumiki felt bile rising in the back of her throat. “But, hey, at least this is happening to me, and not someone who’d actually be missed like you.”

Eyes wide, Tsumiki scratched at the bandage covering her own arm. “H-has it…spread to anywhere else?”

“Are you asking me to strip for you, Tsumiki-san?” he asked brightly.

“N-no I-“ Tsumiki stammered, “P-please just remove your shirt!” In the months since she had last seen him, Tsumiki had neatly forgotten how difficult her former patient could sometimes be, even if she had always looked forward to his appointments more than those of her other patients.

At first glance, there were no immediate issues to be seen on Komaeda’s torso, save for how ghostly pale the skin pulled taut over his ribcage may have been.

“You should be eating more… please take better care of yourself,” Tsumiki said softly, looking him over. Was it possible that removing his hand had stopped the spread? There was still so much they had yet to learn about the sickness.

“There’s no point now, is there?” Komaeda laughed dryly, the sound more raspy than ever, as he readjusted himself on the cot, turning his back toward her. “Not that there ever was for someone like me anyway.”

A second sharp intake of breath passed Tsumiki’s lips, however this time the sound was one of awe rather than shock.

“I really can’t blame you if you don’t want to treat me, Tsumiki-san. I know that it’s even more repulsive than the rest of me-“

“It’s very pretty!” Tsumiki peeped, running her fingers over the velvety soft, featherlike protrusions tricking down the whole of his back.

“You really don’t have to force yourself to say things like that, Tsumiki-san. It’s really okay to just give me some sugarpills and send me on my way. After all, if you stick around me for too long, you’ll catch it too.”

“Ko-Komaeda-san, look…” Reluctantly removing her hand from the lush plumage covering his back, as if she were a child about to produce poor grades from her backpack, Tsumiki unwound the bandage around her wrist, revealing a glimmering patch of iridescent scales.

“Tsumiki-san they’re beautiful!” Komaeda exclaimed, leaning in to get a closer look. “They remind me of that fish in a picture book my mother used to read to me.”

Quickly re-concealing her disfigured skin, lest Seiko come out from the back and see, Tsumiki took the bottle of pills from her apron, shoving it into Komaeda’s remaining hand. “I’m so sorry that I can’t do more… I’m such a failure, letting myself catch it. You really don’t need someone like that caring for you.”

“Well,” Komaeda said, pulling back on his shirt and jacket, “I am very grateful for everything you’ve done for me today. I only wish that there was something that I do for you, but for now, leaving you alone is probably the best that I can manage.”

With that, he stood, making for the door.

“Komaeda-san, wait!”

He paused with his hand on the door handle, not turning around, as if in doing so, he would discover that she had been speaking to some other man with the same unusual surname.

If he were to walk out that door now, Tsumiki knew that she would never see him again. The pills would run out, and he would fully turn soon after. Once that were to occur, no one would see him again. They would haul him off, put him down… It would all be her fault.

“You…you can stay with me. I’ve been living in the basement under the clinic. They won’t find you there… and, and I can take care of you better that way…”

Even if he weren’t ill, even if the two of them wouldn’t wake up as flesh-hungry creatures in a little over a month, Tsumiki still thought that she wouldn’t have been able to bear letting him go again.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to make this even longer, but lol family emergency. I'd love to add onto it when things calm down.


	5. Greedy kiss

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt- A greedy kiss  
> Set during despair.

Flames kissed the red sky, leaping high in their frenzy to reach toxic clouds, like children after butterflies.

“It’s all going to be our’s soon… isn’t it? Everything out there… the entire world…” Tsumiki pressed her palm flush to the window, her own warm breath creating a halo of condensation all around it, an outline of a hand just like the ones she had drawn so often in school as a child, before transforming them into little birds with her crayons.

She had made flocks and flocks of them, all her’s and her’s alone.

Continuing to admire the view, it wasn't long before another hand eclipsed her own. Soft giggles tore open into a startled gasp.

“I’m sorry,” came the apology, empty as it must have been. They were the same inside now, after all.  “I didn’t mean to surprise you.”

Still, her former classmate didn’t bother to remove his hand, the heat of it beginning to bleed into Tsumiki’s bones despite the chill of the drafty warehouse. “Everything… It’s all our’s now…” she repeated, having now found an audience for her discontent.

Komaeda nodded, a parody of agreement. “For now.”

Tsumiki thought that he might have squeezed her hand then, or maybe it had been nothing more than a simple twinge. From exactly who's hand, she couldn't say. 

“So then…" she murmured. "Then why do I still want feel like I want something more…”

Her forehead tapping the glass, she kissed the back of his hand then, until he it slipped away, pulling back to cradle her cheek.

A desperate union of need, he allowed her lips to be brought upon his.

And the world was truly their own.


	6. A Small Rejection

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 'Kiss after a small rejection'!  
> I'm afraid this turned out very similar to one of my older fics.... Whoops.  
> (I don't think anyone is reading these anyway)

Tsumiki had always found herself just a little jealous whenever the other students in her previous school had whipped out their phones during lunch, showing off pictures of their cats or dogs or bunnies to the delighted coos and squeals of their friends.

Although she had little experience with animals, seeing a troupe hamsters scampering about on a sandy beach was still an odd sight at best.

The whimsical display must have seemed natural to Sonia, however, as she sat beside Gundam, lowering cupped hands for one of the furry creatures to venture onto.

“Oh, how sweet!” the princess exclaimed as the little animal raised it’s head up toward her, allowing her to plant a kiss right between its rounded ears. In a decidedly adorable display of reciprocation, the hamster then nuzzled its soft face up against her nose.

Tsumiki pursed her lips together, turning her attention instead to the meandering shapes she traced into the wet sand with the tip of her bare toe.

If Sonia could do it, she could try too, couldn’t she? Tsumiki thought, psyching herself up to cross the beach toward where her classmates sat.

“E-excuse me!” she blurted.

“Yes, Timid One?” Gundam replied, and although it was true that Tsumiki still found him somewhat intimidating, it was no more so than most of the other students sharing the island.

Jabbing a shaky finger toward the frolicking group of rodents, she asked, “May I…? Please?”

“If they so should accept you.”

Taking Gundam’s words as permission, Tsumiki mimicked Sonia’s action from moments before. However, instead of soft fur nestled in her palms, Tsumiki felt nothing but a warm ocean breeze slipping between her fingers.

“It would appear that you are not among the chosen few. Please accept my condolences,” Gundam apologised, before returning to work on the castle he had been hard at work building for his pets.

“Sorry, Tsumiki-san!” Sonia said, “It took me a few tries before they would trust me either. They seem to like it if you have steady hands.” Sonia flexed her sand-encrusted fingers in demonstration.

“Ah, Tsumiki-san!”

As Tsumiki wandered away from the miniature construction area, she was greeted by Komaeda just coming down from the path leading onto the sand. Not dressed for a swim, Tsumiki guessed that he was simply out for a walk, luck leading him toward where the others had congregated for the afternoon. “I saw what happened-“

“It’s alright!” she interrupted, waving her hands frantically, “It was silly of me to think they would want anything to do with me! …The hamsters, I mean… Not that Sonia-san and Tanaka-san probably did either…”

“I’m sure they’re just shy!” Komaeda attempted to reassure her with a laugh. “Anyone should feel honored to be kissed by the Super Highschool Level Nurse!”

“No, it’s… I’m not…” Tsumiki sputtered. “You wouldn’t want to be kissed by me, so why should those sweet little hamsters!?”

“Tsumiki-san,” Komaeda began, taking a step forward, before backing up once more, conflicted. “I would be honored to be kissed by someone like you, but I know how everyone sees me, how you must see me, and-“

Not sparing another thought, Tsumiki darted forward, her own foot filling the print left behind by Komaeda’s indecision as her fingers gripped into his jacket, pecking a kiss to the tip of his nose.

 

 


End file.
